Transcript
FLORENCE SYME BUCHANAN: I first found out about it about 6.30 yesterday evening via a text message from a friend. And it was quite bizarre because it was a lovely evening, we were settling down for the night and I received this text saying that there had been a double shooting in Vaima'anga, and that two people were dead and there was an armed and dangerous man at large. I immediately rang police to confirm this and they were quite hesitant to do so, but in the end they did confirm there was an incident and would not say whether there had been any fatalities at that stage. And it wasn't until over two hours later that they actually put out a warning ot the public, first of all on facebook and then on television, saying there was an armed and dangerous man at large, and that there'd been some shootings.
DON WISEMAN: Eventually he was found to have taken his own life, but quite some time after police had maintained this, I guess, encirclement of the house at Vaima'anga.
FSB: Yes. It's very confusing actually, the misinformation that has been given to the media. We were told that there had been a shot earlier this morning and that police had cordoned off a house on the southern inland side of Rarotonga, and that the gunman was alone. When I arrived at the scene shortly afterwards, I was told by a police officer that negotiations were ongoing between the police and the gunman, and they were trying to reach a compromise. And that the negotiations had been going on for some time. I asked had the gunman made any demands and the officer I spoke to said, no he didn't know whether any demands had been made. Subsequently we find out that when police actually moved into the house the gunman was found dead and had been dead for some hours, and the shot that they had heard earlier this morning was actually the shot that he had used to inflict the fatal wound. So for the police to say they were negotiating with the gunman was quite bizarre, because at that time the gunman was dead.
DW: I guess the actions of police can be excused a little bit because they have never struck anything like this before, have they, in the Cook Islands?
FSB: Yes exactly but they must have a manual and they say that they have got an tactical team that has had training, and they would have undergone training in New Zealand to deal with situations like this, but what has also arisen from this entire incident is how the gunman and another prisoner were allowed out of the prison around four o'clock, because all prisoners are supposed to be in lockdown at the prison by 4 o'clock. Now we have been told that a senior prison warden accompanied the gunman and the other prisoner to the gunman's residence, where he had a shipping container some distance from his house. And he told the warden he was just going to get some tools, but he went into the container where he kept his guns, armed himself and then ran around the back to where the victims lived, only a couple of houses away.
DW: So the killing of the ex-wife and her partner happened very, very quickly?
FSB: Yes, from speaking with eyewitnesses they say that the shootings started about 10 past four. What police have yet to confirm is whether in fact it was a double shooting, whether in fact the ex-partner of the gunman was shot or died as a result of a physical attack because there seem to be two different stories at the moment and police are not confirming which one is the accurate one.
DW: Rimamotu was serving a seven year sentence. How far into that sentence was he?
FSB: He had served about a year and a half, to possibly two years of that seven year sentence.
DW: I guess an event like this has a very traumatic effect on the whole island, doesn't it? It is such a small community.
FSB: Well indeed we have got three people dead on this island of about 8,000 permanent residents and lots of people will be connected, either as family or friends, to all of the casualties and it is just a very, very sad time in our history. The commissioner of police, Ma'ara Tetava, says it is the first double killing that has ever happened like this, and certainly the first time three deaths have happened in such tragic and awful circumstances.
